Stolen Bike Question

bornagaincycler

I am having to commute at present, don't enjoy it but get the train into Victoria. I cycle to the station & leave my bike there locked to a steel rack. The other day I arrived back, & the bike had been stolen. It was a Mongoose Tyax Comp, something I bought cheaply just to leave locked up, thinking nobody will want to steal that.

My question is, what type of bike is more likely to be stolen from the station bike rack? A MTB, a road bike, or a hybrid?

I'm now using two locks & my old road bike.

John B

I have twice been shown around the recovered bikes at police stations, once at Ealing and the other at Victoria. These were bikes that had been found after bike thieves had been nicked, one bloke had thirty odd in his back garden. Each time the vast majority were decent quality MTBs, very few road bikes.

farrell

My question is, what type of bike is more likely to be stolen from the station bike rack? A MTB, a road bike, or a hybrid?

If it's got two wheels they'll nick and sell it!

Just don't leave it behind.....the crackheads will nick anything

ride_whenever

just get a bike you can take apart and backpack on the train.

Anonymous

The thing to remember is that thieves are not lazy in the least. You have to make them work to get what they want. If it takes too long, they leave it. Not always, but I've been through it twice. A Diamond Back V-Link 3.1 and a Mongoose Alta-SX.

This probably sounds duh, but it's the truth.

Shadowduck

I always feel pretty safe leaving my (very) old steel-framed Claud Butler tourer with the downtube shifters - no chav would be interested in riding it and the resale value is probably lower than a decent set of bolt cutter blades!

It still gets a cheapish D lock round the frame and a solid object, plus a cable lock through the wheels. 8)

dondare

If the lock can be cut, picked or broken then the bike will be nicked, regardless of what kind of bike it is. If the bike has to be left in the open, then spend as much on locks as the bike is worth.

ahediel

Lots of the locks out on the market for cycles are very very easy to defeat.

A test was done a couple of weeks ago for the CTC and they will be publishing the results at the end of January.

Not to give too much away, cable locks were defeated in around a second, which included armoured cable locks. U Locks & D Locks lasted only seconds too, and the chains tested faired no better. The kit used was cheap hand tools, which would fit into a back pack.

If you use a U Lock or a D Lock, make sure it has a 16mm shackle and fill ALL the available space. Don't even leave room to get a satsuma in there. If you use a chain, use one that says it is guaranteed it cannot be bolt cropped, not one that is resistant, or uses words like 'defies bolt croppers.'

Make it as difficult as possible for them.

ride_whenever

Virtually nothing will stand up to a determined person, although the almax chains are very good, if expensive. Generally the weak point with them are the anchor point or having teh lock picked.

http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/

Very strong and very expensive. The other option is to get insurance and the cheapest/worst lock on the list of locks.

Shadowduck

dondare wrote:

If the bike has to be left in the open, then spend as much on locks as the bike is worth.

A little overboard, don'tcha think? For those riding thousand pound plus bikes, they'd need a trailer just to carry the security!

"The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny." ~Napoleon Bonaparte

Random Vince

i'd say an old beaten up fixie is least likely to get stolen.

or ye oldie style shopping bikes.

WeirdNeville

Have a read of this guide. I wrote it a few years ago now but the advice is still sound.

Just a question, have you checked that it hasn't been removed by the rail staff? most rail stations have a tagging policy to allow registered bikes to park there, and they periodically clear the racks of "scrap" bikes.

Also, have you checked the whole station, or even work/wherever else you usually leave it? sounds stupid, but I've thought my bike has been nicked before, and then found it in my shed as I'd forgotten that I'd taken it home.